Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/313

Geor. III.

This Book begins with an Invocation of some Rural Deities, and a Compliment to Augustus: After which Virgil directs himself to Mecænas'', and enters on his Subject. He lays down Rules for the Breeding and Management of Horses, Oxen, Sheep, Goats, and Dogs: and interweaves several pleasant Descriptions of a Chariot-Race, of the Battel of the Bulls, of the Force of Love, and of the Scythian Winter. In the latter part of the Book he relates the Diseases incident to Cattle; and ends with the Description of a fatal Murrain that formerly rag'd among the'' Alps.

HY Fields, propitious Pales, I reherse; And sing thy Pastures in no vulgar Verse, Amphrysian Shepherd; the Lycæan Woods; Arcadia's flow'ry Plains, and pleasing Floods. All other Themes, that careless Minds invite, Are worn with use; unworthy me to write. Busiri's Altars, and the dire Decrees Of hard Euristheus, ev'ry Reader sees: